The days are counting down to RAGBRAI 2008, and I am starting to prepare. This is my fourth year riding RAGBRAI and my third time with the three-year-old Team Fat Tire Army. Abby joined me last year and will be riding with me again this year. I want to welcome back Kyle and Robin as they took last year off for a honeymoon overseas to go… biking. They were my original connection to the bus and team, and I can’t thank them enough for bringing me on board back in 2006.
Mike says the bus is still running and ready to go. We have some new faces, but some good old ones as well. Hopefully Jace will find out if he can go or not ASAP. Marc did a great job on the Fat Tire Army website and put it up just in time.
Later today, I am picking up the beer for the week that New Belgium Brewery (brewers of Fat Tire) has set aside for us. This is the 3rd consecutive year that they have sponsored us. We don’t appear to be their special pet anymore as they are sponsoring a few other teams this year, but we still appreciate their support. If you haven’t tried their fine brew, stop by our bus during RAGBRAI for a sampling. Note: It goes fast. We also have all kinds of swag again this year, from stickers and tattoos to bottle openers and bike bells.
I am doing things a bit differently for RAGBRAI 2008. For one, I am in even less shape than last year. I will be strutting KEEN SPD Sandals instead of my Speedplay Zero shoes. I have put in a few miles with the sandals so far and realize how much of a difference the stiffness of the shoe can make. There is no upstroke with the sandals. I will mostly likely be huffing and puffing up the hills this year because of them, but walking more comfortably around town.
Thus far, I am not planning on packing underwear and just going commando after each ride. We will see if I manage to keep them out of the final pack.
I have borrowed a North Face Roadrunner 33 tent from my friend Lee that is a bit bigger than my North Face Tadpole 23. I am older, not carrying on my bike, thus I want to be able to sit up in my tent.
While I am gone on the ride, I hope to send some twitter updates from on location. This is all assuming the cell phone towers aren’t overwhelmed by all the people making calls. My twitter is setup to also display the latest update on the header of my website and my facebook profile.
So there it is, over the next few days I will be packing up, riding a bit more, and then heading off for RAGBRAI. In the meantime, you can check out pictures from previous years by click here: 2005, 2006, 2007, Fat Tire Army Pool, or by going to my Flickr account.
